Intrepid master's student in Folklore embarks on her thesis research in southern Saskatchewan, with some trepidation. If you haven't guessed already, the subject of this research is barns.

Wednesday, 18 December 2013

Happy Holidays from the Barn Hunter and Contest Update

A Christmas greeting card if I ever saw one, this barn in Chester, NH was a Sears kit. Mail order barns were not uncommon in Sasaktchewan, with a few in my study area coming from the infamous Eaton's catalogue. Photo taken from the National Barn Alliance website: www.barnalliance.org

It gets a bit boring to repeat, but time really does fly. I've been busy conducting interviews and working on processing the huge amount of data I collected this fall, and now suddenly Christmas is upon us! I return to St. John's in less than three weeks' time. I have decided to put the blog on hiatus until then, for there is much work for me to do with organising and packing, not to mention feasting and enjoying time with friends and family.

I will return in January from St. John's where I will be finishing my final course in my master's program and beginning to write my thesis. I will announce the winner of the barn count contest in the new year. I'm a bit behind on my work, and so I still don't have the final count. I will notify the winner before I leave Saskatchewan and they will get their moment of fame on this blog come 2014. Thank you so much to everyone who entered a guess, both near and far!

Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season full of merriment and joy. I am so very happy to be able to share my love of barns with you, and I hope you will be back in the new year! Until then, all the peace and love of the season be with you, and here's to ushering in a new year full of love and preservation for barns all across the land.

P.S. I was honoured to be contacted by Shirley Byers, a freelance writer for the Western Producer to write an article about my work. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Producer, it is like, THE agricultural paper for Western Canada, and I was truly tickled pink when this article came out. Thank you to Shirley Byers for the excellent article. For those of you interested in reading it, it is accessible online in Flash and .pdf format through the publication's online digital archive here. The article is on page 38 of the December 5th edition. Here is a direct link to Flash version.